Richard B
by Gymp
Summary: Nightmares and a forgotten past teach Jack and Riddick that some things are best left alone. Rated R for drug use, language, and Adult themes. R&R.
1. Default Chapter

_This is the first of ten chapters; I'll try to get the rest up loaded soon. Gymp._

Chapter One: A Beginning

Richard B. Riddick sat poised ready for any trouble from either outside of himself or within. Sweat covered his body in a fine sheen, blood both human and other wise stained his clothes and the large gash in his leg throbbed with the constant beating of his heart. Lightly he rested his head back on the pilots' seat in the cramped cabin of the emergency skiff. Listening intently he heard Jacks even breath of sleep and Imams' hushed prayers. For each whisper there was a clink of beads, "_counting his rosary for the sins of us all_." He thought to himself. A smirk caught on his upper lip, "Gonna need a hell of a lot more than you got holy man."  He whispered. The whispers remained though, a constant through the star covered space they traveled. As they floated along, Riddick felt his consciousness slipping. Quieting his breathing he concentrated on the steady beat of his heart, could feel every breath bring him the strength to live. Cracking open a tired eye he looked over at Jack the young girl who idolized him to the point of shaving her head and wearing piecemeal goggles.  She looked even younger in slumber curled up in the copilot chair. In her hand, she grasped the outer jacket Carolyn had worn before the eclipse, before the trouble had started, before Johns had caught him again. Slowly he reached out a large muscular arm and rested it over her much smaller hand. Turning his head to the side, he closed his eye again and let the sleep that called to him finally take him. 

***

Jack had cried herself to sleep after she'd found Carolyn's jacket, not caring what the two men thought of her now that the danger was over. They started slowly, one tear at a time until she was wracked with sobs, bent in on herself, the coat clutched to her heart. When sleep had finally taken her heart wrenching, muffled sobs erupted from her now and then, until she was only sniffing away the tears in her sleep. 

Imam kept up his prayers all through the night as Riddick sat in a trance like state, every once in a while, he would open an eye and look at Jack a mixture of pain and confusion on his face. Imam had a hunch that Carolyn had given up her life to him, that Riddick hadn't killed her, instead of bragging of a kill, he had come back, somber and bloody, every once in a while he'd look down at his empty hands and whisper, "Not for me, not for me."  

When Jack woke again, she was surprised to find her hand linked with Riddick's. She lay where she was staring out at the open space ahead of the skiff. Every once in a while she would see random space debris float past the front of the skiff. She noticed the quiet after a while and moving slightly she peaked around the chair to see Imam asleep on his unrolled mat. As she turned back to the front display she felt the muscles jump in Riddick's arm. After a few minutes it occurred again, then his whole arm began to shake. Although his grip on her hand was light, the muscles in his arm were bunched and taught. Reaching her other hand out from under her, Jack put it to his forehead, she was surprised when he slowly moved his head towards her then opened his unnatural blue eyes, as a single tear made it's way down his cheek. The sorrow was evident in his eyes, as they focused on Jack his face instantly grew rigid and releasing her hand he hoisted his injured leg up onto the instrument panel. 

The pant leg had been split, and his wound bandaged, yet it had begun to bleed through the tight packing he had previously applied.  Sighing he pulled out a shiv he had fashioned some time while he was on the planet and cut away the slit pant leg. Ripping it into strips he tied them tightly over the bandages then sat back once more.  A deep growl rumbled in his throat, as he got comfortable then tossed the shiv onto the forward controls in front of him. His breathing became almost impossible to detect as he settled into sleep. Soon after, Imam began again his chanted prayers, calming Jack into her own dreams.

***

Once Riddick had gotten into some semblance of a calmed state, the memories came back. Hard as he tried he lost the battle to fight them off, and instead spent many hours contemplating his future, along with the fate of Jack and the holy man. He couldn't go back to slam, he knew that much alone. But Carolyn's death made him question his own mortality. What would happen to the kid if no one kept an eye on her? Would she really stay with Imam, he doubted it. No, he'd bet two to one that the kid took off in the first year. He certainly would if he was faced with life spent in solitude or out gallivanting with the stars. 

But who really was he talking about? Himself? The killer, about to become a full time baby sitter? No. He was questioning his own humanity; the humanity Carolyn showed him was still alive somewhere inside him. He vowed, as he lay there, that his past would not keep him from protecting Jack, if anything, for Carolyn. Slowly his thoughts shifted away from the skiff and the future, back to the past. The moment Johns got onto his trail Riddick knew he'd been fucked. Evading capture had been hard yet he'd kept up his guard all throughout the years he'd been chased. One slip and he was as good as screwed. Transported on the ghost lanes, with the least amount of contact had gotten them sucked down to a planet where an eclipse that came once every twenty-two years was about to begin. But the nerve of a merc, and morphine hype at that, to say that a kid was expendable really showed how much more of an animal he was compared to Riddick. Being stuck in the system all your life left you with a sense of what was right and what really happened in the day-to-day world. You couldn't escape fate especially if it was out to get you.  

***

When his thoughts settled down, Riddick drifted into a light doze, the habit of little sleep was ingrained, yet with his injury and loss of blood, he figured if he was going to die the only person who'd really miss him was the kid. Ironically she was the same person he was trying to stay alive for. But for all the calm and peace he'd finally found, it didn't last. He woke to the blood curling screams of Jack as she rolled from side to side in the copilot's chair. Reaching out he tried to shake her awake, but she threw off his hand. Looking up, he saw Imam standing by his shoulder; "We gotta hold her down before she hurts herself." Riddick managed to grunt out before making a grab at her flailing arms. 

Once he'd caught both of them he grasped them in one hand, while Imam tried desperately to wake her. As she he legs began to kick out, Riddick lifted her bodily into his lap and held her struggling body to his chest. She quieted down after several minutes then drifted back into a dreamless sleep. After repositioning her in the empty chair he watched her, unsure of any more sudden movements. Even after Imam had fallen asleep on his unrolled mat, Riddick watched her. He sat ready to quiet her movements if need be in a moments notice.

When jack opened her eyes it was to be greeted by a look of concern, which was quickly hidden by Riddick. 

"You ok?" he asked as she groaned and repositioned herself to face the instrument panel to her right.

"No." She mumbled. It all seemed so real in sleep, the awful hell and demons, so much worse than the desert planet that the reality she woke up to seemed so much less important than her own chaotic dreams.

***

Screams, high pitched and inhuman echoed through the recesses of Jacks' mind. Jolting quickly out of sleep she leapt head first into Riddick's arms and lay huddled there, sobbing whole heartedly. Riddick, sensing her insecurities at the moment, wrapped his arms around her, giving her the tight circle of his arms to feel safe in. It was the third time she had done it in thirty six hours and Riddick was sure that it would happen several more times before the skiff got picked up by a passing ship, or they all died from lack of food and water.

_More to come..._


	2. Rescue

_AN: And More Has Come! This was written PreDark Fury, and I've sort of twisted the plot from what I had before. (It seemed a little too cookie cutterish.) So Thanks for waiting and all that good stuff, I appreciate it. And go check out my story Sightless Eyes while you're at it!_

Disclaimer: No, I do not own any rights to the Riddick universe, if you're interested in buying it contact Universal Studios, or David Twohy.

Báisteach Dubh- Black Rain pronounced Bosh'tuk Dove

**96 hours** in the skiff and Riddick felt like it had already been a lifetime. The worrisome smell of rancid flesh and unwashed bodies continually washed over him. He'd had to contain his reflexive move to snap jacks neck when she had started to poke and prod his bad leg, looking for some sign that the little that was done for it would be enough. As the hours passed by, his dreams, or what could be called that anyway persisted in waking him almost hourly from the rest his body needed and craved.

It was during one of Riddick's more coherent times of wakefulness that they were hailed. Panting heavily, he straightened himself in the pilot's chair, Imam for once sat at his right in the copilots' position. When the signal was received Riddick groaned.

"For your safety," he managed to growl out, "you answer it."

Imam nodded his head in understanding. Flicking the comms switch his steady voice was sent to the nearby ship.

"Space vessel, this is Emergency Skiff 021136, requesting assistance." There was a crackle and then the voice of the ships helmsman was heard.

"This is the trading vessel Báisteach Dubh, please state the nature of the emergency." Imam cleared his throat before speaking again. "We have a severely wounded man on board, a child and myself, we are the only survivors from the merchant vessel Hunter Gratzner. Requesting medical assistance and passage to the nearest space port."

There was no reply for several minutes, then a crackle and a return message. "Please prepare for docking, Báisteach Dubh out."

Riddick worn from his battle to stay awake, remained conscious for only a few moments after the transmissions ended, then his haunting dreams overcame him. The shudder of the docking clamps connecting to the hull of the skiff was the last thing that he remembered as the large space craft prepared pull the skiff into its open docking bay. Jack had been jostled awake by the docking procedures and quickly moved to pull the pair of goggles Riddick wore around his neck, up to cover his closed eyelids. Jack sat cross-legged on the mat Imam had been able to carry to the skiff when the back hydraulic ramp was lowered manually. The skiff had been running on damaged fuel cells for several days causing there to be not enough Juice left in the giant crate to open the ramp launch door.

The burst of clean air that came in through the opening was surprising to say the least to jack and Imam. The stale circulated air had been a constant companion that was gratefully released. As the silhouette of a tall thin man in a lightweight police vest appeared at the base of the ramp, Jack quickly scrambled away from the back of the skiff. She pushed her way between the two pilots' chairs and leaned heavily against the forward control panel. Sensing her unease, Imam stood and lightly put a hand on her trembling shoulder.

"It is not him, you are safe now child." He whispered. Jack nodded imperceptibly, yet the idea hadn't been a real cop still left her weary of law enforcement.

The dull clunk of boots on the ramp signaled the movement of the man as he cautiously entered the skiff. "Anyone in here?" A woman's voice asked as another pair of boots ascended the ramp. Jack swallowed a lump that had formed in her throat then spoke up.

"Yeah, we're back here." The woman continued up the ramp stopping when she entered the dim cabin.

"Lights." She murmured, and then turned to the man behind her. "Jeffries, I need all the light we can get in here, got to the tool locker and get the double excavation flood lights." As the man turned and walked down the ramp, the woman addressed the gloom in front of her. "My name is Sara Parker, I'm the captain of this vessel, you said one of you was injured, who was it that Jeffries spoke to earlier?" Imam pushed jack ahead of him as he exited the darkness. They shielded their eyes from the brightness of the hangar lights. "I am Imam, it was I hat your man spoke to. This is jack, and the other man is injured. He is unconscious now, yet we do not know how severe his injury is, only that his leg, is festering."

The woman nodded, then when Jeffries had had returned took the lamp he handed her and entered the skiff. When she turned the lamp on she was surprised to see the insides of the skiff. Several beat-up power cells had been rigged as a power supply, dried blood covered part of one of the metal benches along the bulkhead to her right and sand and other some other unidentifiable substances were scattered underneath the grated panels of flooring.

"He's in the pilot's chair." Jack said, even she was surprised to see the insides of the skiff lit after living in shadowy darkness for so many days. Sarah mad her way quickly to the Riddick, a trail of blood had dried down the side of his face, his torn black tank top was torn and covered in blood and other substances, yet what worried her was the almost green pallor of his skin and the immense heat that was radiating off his body. Crouching down by his legs, she noticed the bandages wrapped tightly around his left leg.

Jeffries!" she called, " we're going to have to move him right away!"

"Where are you taking him?" jack asked, worry causing her voice to waiver.

Sarah and Jeffries carried Riddick out of the skiff on a stretcher. "We're going to the med lab, you should come too, just to make sure both of you are all right." Sarah said as captain and pilot shifted the weight between them, and then made their way out of the hanger.

Several hours later a cleaned up jack and imam sat together on a clean bed in the small medical bay. Jeffries stood quietly by Sarah's side as she questioned the pair. "Do you remember what happened to the others?" She asked. Warily she looked at her stark surroundings, her eyes avoiding Jeffries before meeting the captain's steady gaze. Her body gave an involuntary shudder at the thought of what had happened on the desert planet.

"Eaten." Jack whispered as she clenched her eyes tight, a reflexive action that did nothing to stop the hellish nightmare from returning to the forefront of her thoughts.


End file.
